Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Down then Up

Feeling characteristically down, I
went to the internet to see what I could find. Normally I try 'funny
cats', but somehow I happened upon a website called 'In the Make:
Studio Visits with Artists and Designers. It is a site run by
photographer Klea McKenna and writer Nikki Grattan. The two travel
around documenting wildly cool artists through intriguing interviews and
stellar photography.

The
site is beautifully laid out: boat loads of white space, clean text,
and vibrant colour photographs. I was immediately drawn to the entry on Mary Button Durell.
Giant shaped paper reminiscent of my childhood attempts at geometric
beehives, spirograph fleshed out, and candy. Her medium is tracing
paper, wheat paste and recently adding acrylic paint. The result is
playful and ethereal.

In her own words:

"I’ve chosen to work with the properties of
light and translucency, biomorphic forms and patterns. The work has been
compared to natural worlds: subaquatic, celestial and cellular.
Depending on the process and the light, the individual pieces can take
on the characteristics of different, more solid materials such as wood,
bone, shell or marble."

Subaquatic - definitely. There is also definitely a scientific element to the creations.

Seeing
her work seemed to make me feel temporarily better. If I could have a
wish right this moment, I'd wish that I could shrink down a la Alice,
and float through those beautiful wispy tunnels.

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About Me

the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!' "